The present invention relates to a method for automatically creating and managing a GIS database, a system for managing geographic information stored in a geographic data base as well as to a mobile device accessing wirelessly such a system.
The presented invention generally relates to the field of geoinformation systems, and more particular to the automatic collection of location information and the dissemination to (mobile) client of (wireless) networks.
Geoinformation systems are systems that manage a database of locations and provide application, which accesses this database to present location-related data to the user. According to known approaches the database is stored locally on the device used to access the information. This can be the local hard disk or a CD-ROM in a CD-ROM device (e.g. in a car navigation system). This has the disadvantage that the database contents is fixed and can not be changed without further efforts (e.g. buying and installing a new CD, downloading a new database copy, etc.)
In the Internet age, geoinformation systems are now accessed over a network (e.g. trip planning systems). With the emerging of wireless wide-area networks (e.g. GSM) and low-cost mobile computers (e.g. notebooks or palmtops), geoinformation system will provide mobile users with information about their current position. This is enforced further by more and more means for the mobile user to determining his current position. For example, the Global Position System (GPS) provides a low-cost automatic means to determine the current position. The GSM system and other wireless networks will provide location information derived from the measurements in the base stations.
Using this information a geolocation database can be queried about interesting locations in the surrounding of a user. The database can be on a server in the network or (partially) replicated between a network server and the current used device (depending for example on the capabilities of the device, e.g. his hard disk space).
One problem of this known technique is that creating and maintaining the geoinformation database is an expensive and very time consuming process. From the perspective of the GIS database owner it is expensive to including a broad range of different locations into the database. He must create the content on its own or contact a lot of different location owner (e.g. shops, museums, banks, etc.) to get the desired information. In addition to the location information, he must manage a lot of addition information special customized for the mobile user. He will further receive a lot of database change request from his customers.
From the view of location owner (e.g. the shop owner), he has to deal with different GIS database providers. So, whenever his information changes, he must inform several database owner which is slow and expensive. Updates are also slow, as a GIS owner might not directly change his database.
From EP-A-0860787 a map display system is known including a plurality of geographic information servers, a geographic information search server and clients, connected to each other through a network. The geographic information search server searches a plurality of geographic information servers and generates a combination list containing information of existential places of the plurality of geographic information servers. The clients obtain a plurality of geographic information from the plurality of geographic information servers designated by the combination list and display the obtained plurality of geographic information while superimposing them so that the coordinates thereof coincide each other on the same screen. The disadvantage of that technique is that the geographic information server can be accessed automatically, however the information stored in the geographic information servers has to be entered by a cumbersome and time consuming work for the user.
Form EP-A-829704 an information display system for vehicle navigation is known. In order to provide a navigation system intelligently providing various information which contains information to vary with time and is expected by the user, without increasing quantity of the information to be transmitted to a terminal mounted on a car, a navigation system is constituted with an information offering equipment and an information display system, and that information offering equipment has an individual information reception means to obtain individual information through a network and a data transmission means to transmit the received information to the information display system, and that information display system has a data receiver receiving the data from the information offering equipment, a map display means, an icon display means displaying the received data on a map, an icon select means and a detailed information display means which displays the detailed information of an icon selected.
Geoinformation System (GIS) manage large databases of information about xe2x80x9clocationsxe2x80x9d. A location according to the present description is a place in the real world identified by coordinates. A location might be a single spot, a circular area, a rectangular area, or any other kind of region. Maintaining a GIS database involves the manual entering of new locations, the updating of existing information, and more. A GIS owner has to put a lot of effort into finding new locations, maintaining the old ones and updating out-of-date information.
Furthermore, anybody who wishes to place a location into the GIS database had to contact the GIS database owner, inform him about the location and update him regularly about changes. This requires a lot of effort from both parties involved: the GIS owner and the location owner. Furthermore, there is a high probability of errors during the database content preparation and also a good chance that the information contained in database is already outdated.
Therefore it is the object of the present invention to propose a technique enabling an effective management of GIS databases.
This object is achieved by means of the features of the independent claims. The dependent claims develop further the central idea of the present invention.
According to the present invention therefore a method for automatically managing a GIS database is provided. The GIS database contains at least a geographical position information of locations and an associated information representing at least one feature of each location. Nodes of a network are perpetually or periodically searched. It is detected whether geographical position information an associate information of a location is present at a searched node. The geographical position information and the associated information of the location present at the node of the network is retrieved and automatically entered to the GIS database.
The search, the detection, the retrieval and the entering of the information to the database thereby can be conducted by at least one automatic search agent. In case a plurality of parallel search agents is used, the search speed is enhanced.
The geographical position information can contain a longitude/latitude information of a location.
Geographical position information present at a node of the network in another format than longitude/latitude information can be automatically converted into a longitude/latitude information format.
One of the features of a location stored in the database can be a link to a web page of the Internet.
One of the features of a location can be digital signature.
Before the entering step the retrieved information can be checked for duplicates and/or consistency with entries already present in the geographic information database.
Before the entering step a trust level can be attached to the geographical position information and the associated information of a location.
The GIS database can be stored on a server and can be accessible from mobile devices via a wireless network.
A user can enter information by means of a register interface of the GIS database.
A user can confirm information of the geographic information database by means of a feedback interface.
The present invention furthermore relates to a system for managing geographic information stored in a GIS database, the GIS database containing at least a geographical position information of a location and an associated information representing at least one feature of the location the system comprises an automated search agent for perpetually or periodically searching nodes of a network, for detecting, if geographical position information and associated information of a location is present at a searched node, for retrieving the geographical position information and the associated information of the location present at the node of the network, and for automatically entering the acquired geographical position information and associated information to the GIS database.
The format of the geographical position information stored in the database thereby can be the longitude/latitude information of a location.
Means for converting geographical position information present at the node of the network in another format than the longitude/latitude information format, into the longitude/latitude information format can be provided.
One of the features of a location stored in the database can be a link to a web page of the Internet.
One of the features of a location can be a digital signature.
The automatic search agent can comprise a location checker for checking information retrieved at the node of the network for duplicates and/or consistency with entries already present in the GIS database.
Means for associating a trust level to the geographical position information and associate information of a location can be provided.
When accessing the database only locations with a predetermined trust level can be retrieved.
The GIS database can be stored on a server and can be accessible from mobile devices via a wireless network.
A register interface of the GIS database can be provided such the user can enter information.
According to the present invention furthermore a mobile device is provided which is designed such as to access wirelessly a system as said forth above.
The mobile device can comprise means for detecting the actual position of the mobile device.
The mobile device furthermore can comprise means for displaying locations retrieved from the database, wherein only locations are displayed which have geographical position information which corresponds to the actual position of the mobile device or which lies within a predetermined range around the actual position of the mobile device. Alternatively locations are displayed which have geographical position information which corresponds to a selected position or which lies within a predetermined range around a selected position.
Using the present invention as set forth above, the process of maintaining the correct information about the location is separated from the communication with the database owner. Furthermore the process of inserting the location into the database is automated. The database owner can search for example the Internet or relevant data bases. The users of the database can receive more up-to-date information.